Wednesday was an eventful day for Paul Skenes that ended with the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander winning the National League Cy Young Award.

However, earlier in the day, a report surfaced from NJ.com's Randy Miller saying that Skenes told teammates this past season that he would like to pitch for the New York Yankees. Skenes cannot become a free agent until following the 2029 season, and Pirates general manager Ben Cherington says he has rebuffed trade offers for the 23-year-old.

Skenes downplayed the report on Wednesday night while on a conference call with Baseball Writers' Association of America members after he became the second pitcher to win a Cy Young Award a year after being the Rookie of the Year. Dwight Gooden pulled off that double in 1984-85 while with the New York Mets.

"I don't know where that came from," Skenes said. "The goal is to win, and the goal is to win in Pittsburgh."

So, on this night, Skenes wasn't in a New York state of mind.

However, it would be understandable if Skenes is frustrated by playing for the Pirates, who had a 71-91 record this year and finished in last place in the NL Central. The Pirates scored the fewest runs in MLB, which was reflected in Skenes' 10-10 record, despite having the best ERA in the majors at 1.97.

Furthermore, the Pirates have had 29 losing seasons in the last 33 years. They haven't been to the postseason since 2015, haven't won a division title since 1992, and haven't played in the World Series since defeating the Baltimore Orioles in 1979.

Owner Bob Nutting has rarely shown the desire to spend. The Pirates have been in the bottom five in the major leagues in player payroll in 16 of the 19 seasons since Nutting has been the franchise's controlling owner.

Yet Skenes is not deterred.

"The way that fans see us outside of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is not supposed to win," Skenes said. "There are 29 fan bases that expect us to lose. I want to be a part of the 26 guys who change that. I don't know where (the report) came from; the goal is to win. I don't know the reporter who reported it. I don't know the player that supposedly said that, but the goal is to win, and the goal is to win in Pittsburgh."

The Pirates have an interesting young group of starting pitchers to build around, led by Skenes. Bubba Chandler, Braxton Ashcraft, and Mike Burrows were all rookies this past season and could begin 2026 in the rotation.

However, there often seems to be a lack of urgency with the Pirates. Last winter, they made little to no improvement to the offense, and it showed throughout this past season. Yet Skenes believes there is a hunger to win in the organization and a desire to reward fans who have endured a lot of losing over the last three decades.

"As you look at the organization as a whole, I think there are people in Double-A who don't realize it. People in High-A who don't realize what Pittsburgh needs," Skenes said. "There are people whose first time coming to Pittsburgh is when they make their major-league debut. But you realize it pretty quickly. And there are people, I think, probably not enough people, but we can change that, people who realize that Pittsburgh deserves this, is craving this, and we're going to change it."